Mr Holmen was given the false information after he used ChatGPT to search for: “Who is Arve Hjalmar Holmen?”
The response he got from ChatGPT included: “Arve Hjalmar Holmen is a Norwegian individual who gained attention due to a tragic event.
“He was the father of two young boys, aged 7 and 10, who were tragically found dead in a pond near their home in Trondheim, Norway, in December 2020.”
Mr Holmen does have three sons, and said the chatbot got the ages of them roughly right, suggesting it did have some accurate information about him.
Digital rights group Noyb, which has filed the complaint, external on his behalf, says the answer ChatGPT gave him is defamatory and breaks European data protection rules around accuracy of personal data.
Noyb said in its complaint that Mr Holmen “has never been accused nor convicted of any crime and is a conscientious citizen.”
ChatGPT carries a disclaimer which says: “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.”
Noyb says that is insufficient.
“You can’t just spread false information and in the end add a small disclaimer saying that everything you said may just not be true,” Noyb lawyer Joakim Söderberg said.
